Spawned to Die
by rowenar11
Summary: Steve, a strange person with no past, appears in the middle of the forest- at the worst time convenient, when everyone in Minecraft is still afraid of the spawned. In order to find out who he is, Steve must either travel to a mysterious college or help a girl with a personal vendetta against the End.
1. Chapter 1

"Welcome... to Minecraft."

Steve opened his eyes. All he saw in front of him was darkness, but as his eyes adjusted, he could vaguely see the outlines of trees. He looked around, but that was all there was. He appeared to be in a forest at night.

"Hello?" he shouted. "Anyone here?"

Suddenly, he heard a hissing in the darkness, and saw the faint silhouette of a rectangular creature. It was shorter than him, but somehow seemed menacing.

"Hello? Who are you?" Steve asked the approaching menace. It didn't respond.

Suddenly, the creature began flashing. Warily, Steve backed up. Then white light flashed in front of his eyes, and he heard a huge boom. Yelling, he made a leap to the side. When the flash disappeared, there was only a crater where the creature once stood. Steve had avoided the worst of the explosion, but lights still danced in his eyes. He blinked.

All of a sudden, he heard the snap of something elastic, and an arrow flew towards him. He ducked under it and started running in the opposite direction. More arrows flew after him, and he could vaguely see purple eyes looking at him from all directions. Another creature exploded behind him. Then with a hiss, a black spider landed in front of him and attacked. One of its fangs narrowly missed his arm, and yelling with panic, he hit it away. Then he began his running once more.

Steve heard a yell, and something ran in front of him, pulling him to the side as an arrow flew towards him. The arrow missed him and hit the figure in the arm. The strange person yelled, "Run! RUN!" as more monsters started to close in.

Steve obeyed, frantically tearing through the trees and avoiding monsters. Soon, the figure was at his side, running gracefully and holding what appeared to be a sword. The person pulled him behind a tree and they stopped, gasping for breath. After a few minutes, the person took a stick-like object from a bag on their back, then put it on the tree. Immediately, the tip started glowing, and Steve realized it was a torch.

Curiously, Steve looked into the figure's face, now fully illuminated, not realizing that one look would change him forever.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a girl. She had red hair and dark gray eyes that seemed to radiate strength and hostility. The white hood of a jacket covered her head, and she didn't seem the social type. The sword she held glimmered like steel in the moonlight, and she had only one brown boot on, the other probably lost in the chase.

"What were you THINKING?!" she yelled, not seeming to care if the monsters heard. "It's the middle of the night! And you have no armor or weapons or anything!"

"Um... I... I didn't know, honestly," Steve protested. "Were those... monsters?"

"Wait a minute," the girl said suspiciously. "You... you didn't know what those were? Yeah, right. You probably just had too many potions, though I doubt you wandered this far by yourself. Look, I can get you out of these woods, but I'm not dragging you to the nearest city."

"Potions? I've never drank a potion in my life... as far as I know. I mean, I don't really remember anything," Steve explained.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you saying you... spawned?" the girl asked with wonder. "In the middle of the forest?"

"Spawn? All I know is I just... appeared over there and... you saw what happened." Steve looked around. "What is this place?"

"Well, buddy..." The girl sighed. "This is Minecraft. After a few days, you're going to wish you had never been born. Or spawned, I guess." She took a leather helmet out of her bag and handed it to him. "You're gonna need it," she said.

"Thanks!" Steve said, putting it on.

"Don't thank me yet," the girl said. "I haven't gotten us out of these woods yet. Whatever magical powers they say spawned people have, I doubt you know how to get us out of here."

She took the torch off the tree and stuffed it back into her backpack, then wove her way through the trees, hardly making a noise. Steve followed, considerably louder.

"I'm Steve. What's your name?" he asked in a hushed voice that woke up about five spiders.

In a much quieter tone, the girl said, "Ashley. But everyone calls me Ash. Come on."

Cautiously, Steve kept following her, and for a few minutes all they could hear was the quiet babbling of water and Steve's slightly noisy footsteps. Gradually, though, Steve realized Ash was quietly groaning.

"What's wrong?" he asked, then took one look at her arm. "Oh... my."

He had totally forgotten that she had took that arrow in the arm. Blood seeped out of the wound slowly, and Ash seemed to be clenching her teeth in pain. After he stared for awhile, she turned around and harshly whispered, "For Notch's sake, Steve! It's not like I'm dying! Besides, we're almost there."

Steve was silent, and after a few minutes, they reached a building lit with torches. "My cousin can take care of us," Ash explained. "This is his farm." She led him through the fence. After that, Steve couldn't remember much through his haze of drowsiness. He vaguely remembered being led inside by a blond man, and a dark-haired woman leading Ash off into the house. The blond man was supporting him, and led him inside, where he collapsed into a random bed and slept.


	3. Chapter 3

Steve woke up with sunlight shining down on his face. He was in the bed he had collapsed in last night. Groaning, he got up, feeling each and every bruise throb. The helmet Ash had given him was on the floor next to the bed.

Oh no. Ash!

He jumped up and looked around. Nobody else was in the beds, but he could hear voices through the door. He barely noticed that the wool blankets on the bed he slept in were slightly scorched, running out of the room instead of deciding to investigate. Steve burst through the door and looked around.

He was in a pleasantly lighted dining area, with chairs pulled up around a wooden table. Ash and the blond man were sitting, and the dark-haired, tan-skinned woman cooked meat in an oven. The man smiled, but Ash only looked briefly at Steve, then returned to picking at her breakfast.

"Hey there," the man said. "I'm Michael, Ash's cousin."

"Oh, hi," he responded. "I'm Steve. Ash, are you all right?"

"Fine enough," she grumbled. Steve noticed her arm was in a cast.

"Sit, sit! There's plenty to eat," Michael invited. Steve sat slowly and began eating what seemed to be beef. After a few minutes, the woman sat down to join them. Michael introduced them with, "Steve, this is Carlita, my wife. Carlita, I'm supposing this is Ash's friend."

Ash quietly scowled, then took a bite of beef.

"I'm Steve. It's nice to meet you," Steve said in response.

"Welcome to our home," Carlita said warmly. She had a strange, flowing accent that made her beauty even more exotic. "You can stay as long as you need."

"I wish we could go whenever we need, too," Ash said quietly, glaring at Michael.

"Ash, you can't leave now!" he protested. "With an arm in a cast? You can't even lift a sword, much less use it!"

"But I need to get to Arrowtip!" she argued. "If the trader leaves before I get there, he'll be long gone to the College, and you know that he's the only one who has what I need!"

"What's Arrowtip? And the College?" Steve interrupted.

"They're both places," Michael explained. "Arrowtip is a city. And the College... well, I'm supposing that's where you want to go."

"Why?" asked Steve.

Ash answered with, "They know you spawned, Steve. And the College... well, it might be able to help you. Even though they're a bunch of crazy old men who recite nursery rhymes all day and ramble on and on about the 'language of the universe'..."

"Ash, they deserve respect," Michael said. "The Committee supports them. Oh, Steve, the Committee is the group of people that rule Notchreich, the kingdom we live in."

"So hire a shuttler, get him there," Ash said. "If he wants to know 'Who am I?' and all that mumbo-jumbo, then I guess he better go."

"Yes, he better. With you."

Ash coughed, almost choking on her beef. She swallowed, then spoke again. "Michael, if you honestly think he could survive one night out there, then you are VERY mistaken."

"We don't have enough money for a shuttler..." Michael persuaded.

She groaned. "Fine," was her reply. "But only to Arrowtip!" She then stood and stalked off into another room.


	4. Chapter 4

It took only a few days before Ash could use a sword again, and after she could, she insisted on leaving as soon as possible. But the more she insisted on leaving, the more Steve wanted to stay. The farm was pleasant and safe, and he didn't want to go out into the woods again. Plus, Michael could use a farmhand. What if Steve just... stayed? He could work in the fields and feed the pigs and... everything.

But something in him wanted to find out who he was and where he came from. He had just... appeared. There was something strange about him. Every morning, he woke up and his bed would have more burn marks. There was now a faint, scorched silhouette where he slept. He wanted to solve the mystery of his life, and maybe find out why he had come. Maybe the people at the College knew. And if they didn't, he could always come back here.

While they had waited for Ash to recover, Michael had shown Steve how to craft a few basic items and showed him how to use tools and weapons. Steve proved to be pretty handy with a sword, but he was terrible with a bow. Sometimes he asked Michael if there were any other weapons or ways to defend himself, but Michael always laughed and said there was nothing. Still, he felt like there should be something happening when he hit something with a sword. Not just the regular slice. It was a strange feeling, and he didn't explain it to anyone.

As Steve and Ash prepared to leave, Michael pulled Steve aside. "Listen. There's something you've got to know," he whispered. "Whatever you do, don't mention her family. It's kind of a... touchy subject."

"Well..." Seeing Michael's serious expression, he said, "Okay." But he was a bit curious, and what was wrong with curiosity?

"Good," Michael said. "You'd better go."

Steve nodded and left the room. Ash gave him a suspicious glance, but Steve ignored it and said his goodbyes to Michael's wife. Michael gave them some meat for the trip, and they were heading out all too soon. Ash walked through the gate, and he followed as quickly as he could, matching her constant pace as they began on the gravel path.

Ash was comfortable with silence, that much was obvious. For the first hour or two, not a word was spoken. Even though Ash was perfectly comfortable, Steve began to feel awkward. Nervously, he drummed his fingers against his sword sheath and shifted his helmet's position. After another minute or so, he finally said, "How can you be so quiet?"

"It's easy," she said. "I don't think."

"But that's ridiculous." He looked over at her. "You can't stop thinking. How can you not be thinking if your brain is making your legs move? How can you respond to me without thinking it through first?"

"Ignore the technicalities, Steve. I only think just enough to function."

Steve frowned. "But... why not?"

"Sometimes..." She hesitated. "Sometimes there are things you don't want to think about."

"Like your family?" Steve blurted. He bit his lip nervously. He hadn't meant to burst out with it, but it had been the first response he thought of.

Suddenly, he found his back slammed against a tree, Ash's hand gripping his shirt in one clenched hand, her face inches from his. Her eyes no longer had the previous calm look. Instead, they were wild with fury, and flooded with pain.

"What did Michael tell you?! WHAT DID HE TELL YOU?!" she shouted in his face.

After a few nervous seconds, her face began to fade. Steve blinked, and her face was almost gone. He panicked and tried to move, but it seemed like he was stuck in a huge vat of black liquid, slowly being sucked downward and downward. Images flashed before his face. A burning village... Two people screaming... And in the center of it all, two pale purple eyes, swirling in a black face...

In an abrupt instant, he was back, Amber still holding him against the tree. Her face was more guarded. "Your eyes... They got..." she began hesitantly.

"I saw so many images... Fire and purple eyes..." Steve shook his head. "It was weird."

Ash paled. "Purple eyes..." she whispered. Shaking, she let go of his shirt and backed away. "How can you... How did you see... in my mind?"


End file.
